A Goddamn Brutal New Diet

[Karhukonna]

Hello, fellow escapists. I have recently started doing a bit of cardio. Nothing much, pretty much a basic couch to 5k practice. Regardless, I feel that I will need to keep my diet in check while I try to get into (better) shape. Thing is, while I've a dab hand at the art of fine cuisine, I find myself in the mood for cooking fairly rarely.

This is, essentially, where my idea comes into work. As some of you may know by reading my posts or just checking my profile, I love all things military. Military rations included. I don't care what kind of mush it is, as long as it has all the nutrition I need. So I've got this idea I'm trying out. The basic idea is to grab all the ingredients I need to get all the nutrition I need in a single day, and mush it into this one, single... Thing? I dunno if it'll turn into a smoothie or a paste, really, but I'm down either way.

Please note that I did mention simply trying this out, I'm certainly not going to feed upon nutrition paste for the rest of my days.

The real problem is, I am at a loss as to what ingredients I'm supposed to use, and in what quantities. I'm not all that knowledgeable about nutrition values (despite the efforts of three PE officers and numerous PE teachers), and I'd like to ask any health-gurus among us escapists for advice and straight out lists of ingredients. I'm looking to intake about 2500 calories a day.

Hopefully with your help, I will be able to create a smoothie, or a paste or a porridge or something that will pretty much taste awful but fill me up.

 

[halfeclipse]

If your diet can at all be described as brutal, or any similar adjective, it's probably a bad idea. Amongst other things eating 2500 calories in one sitting will probably make you ill, and may very well lead to your body gaining fat (If your body doesn't have a regular intake of calories throughout the day, it goes into starvation mode.)


Calories is calories. While certain types take more energy to break down, you'd need to be taking in tends of thousands of calories a day for that to make a real difference. Carbs are perfectly fine.

While Supersize Me isn't exactly a feat of brilliance, Fathead is just as bad. Amongst other issues, it claims that cholesterol build up has no meaningful effect on coronary disease, and uhh yea.

 

[gazumped]

Does it ALL have to be a weird paste or smoothie? Don't forget that if you mush everything up too much you're going to hack down the amount of fibre you're getting and that's going to lead to very unhealthy poop times!

I suggest... soup! Soup is awesome, you chop things up, you throw them into a pan of boiling water, you come back to it in half an hour and it's done. Depending on the size of your biggest pan you can make huge amounts at once and then freeze the leftovers in tupperware (or just put it in the fridge if you know you're going to eat it in the next day or so) and then just heat it up in the pan again the next time you're hungry.
If you add some tasty stock it always tastes amazing, no matter what's in it, but stock is usually kind of salty so perhaps you're just going to have to go for the blander (but often still yummy!) soup if you're wanting to be ultra healthy.

Potatoes will give you your soupy carbs, obviously you can stick pretty much any kind of veg in there and you can cook it to death but the vitamins will leak into the water which you'll drink anyway.

Also, I suggest banana and peanut butter smoothies (you mix them with about a cup of milk) every now and again, absolutely packed with protein and potassium and rather tasty! (Don't put more than two tablespoons max of peanut butter in per banana or else it'll just feel like you're eating slightly liquidy peanut butter...)

 

[Angie7F]

Isn't that just like going on a protein shake diet etc?
Theoretically it will work, but mentally i think you will be unsatisfied and end up rebounding after going back to your normal meals.

 

[s0p0g]

The food guide in many countries such as USA and Canada tells you to eat more carbohydrates and starches than any other food group. This is absolutely horrible advice as they are pretty much pure fat[...].

The guides are mostly based on misinformation, our governments simply listened to the wrong group of scientists and we've never corrected our ways.

carbohydrates, no matter how long, are NOT fat/lipids, their chemical structures and compositions are quite different - which is why one is called carbohydrates (starch is a carbohydrate/polysaccharide, btw; lots of alpha-D-glucose connected by glycosidic bonds, (C6 H10 O5)n), the other lipids


besides that, i completely agree that high-carb for weight-loss is not the way; even without detailed knowledge of biochemistry one should easily see that something which the body can turn into "energy" without much effort will cause it to, well, become fat. for instance, look at the coca-cola and chocolate kids

 

[dmase]

Well weird request but ok. Your gonna want to go heavy on the protein, I'd prefer using lean meat like fish or chicken but I don't know how that would be in a shake. Milk is ok but if your going for a 2500 calorie diet you probably want over a hundred grams of protein a day and milk won't just get you to that. Meat's provide some of the most "complete" proteins so they are the best but you could supplement them with whey or soy protein if need be.

Besides protein add some fruits and vegetables and your good, add some carbs. If your doing 5k training though you don't need to limit carbs much at all.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Being "filled up" is much less about eating the right things than avoiding certain things and eating in a certain way, I've found. I'm no expert, but here's some things I've heard and observed in myself.

1) Insulin levels make a big difference. If you eat a lot of sugar or processed carbohydrate, your insulin levels will spike and you'll find yourself with low blood sugar later (which causes food cravings). Avoid processed sugar and white rice/pasta/bread. Eat fruit or drink fruit juice for (occasional) sugar, and switch to brown or wholemeal for carbohydrates. You might get cravings for a few days, but they will go away quite quickly.

2) When you eat food, it doesn't instantly produce the feeling of not being hungry. The best way around this is to control your portions and accept that you need to be disciplined in the half hour or so after you finish eating. The feeling of being hungry will pass.

3) Ideally, switch to eating smaller meals and either eat more of them or snack (healthily) between meals. Use rigorous portion control to ensure you're still eating the same amount. You want the energy released from your food to be as constant as possible, no binging and fasting. The fasting will make you hungry and the binging won't do you any good.

4) Drink enough fluids. People often feel hungry when they're actually thirsty.

Maybe it's just because I'm quite small, but 2,500 calories sounds pretty high to me. Not necessarily a problem though, it depends on how you are physically and how much exercise you're doing.

 

[lacktheknack]

The food guide in many countries such as USA and Canada tells you to eat more carbohydrates and starches than any other food group. This is absolutely horrible advice as they are pretty much pure fat, bread items should actually be one of your least consumed food groups.

Baby and bathwater, man. Whole grain bread comes packed with a whole bunch of vitamins, minerals and fiber, removing them is the wrong thing to do. Also, your body REQUIRES carbs if you want to do intense aerobic exercise. You're welcome to try doing that with mostly protein and fat, but I can guess how that will go. If you eat a ton of carbs and then proceed to sit around all day, then yes, they'll be stored as fat, but that's why it's generally recommended that you exercise regularly.

Obviously, over-processed carbs (read: Wonderbread) will do terrible things to you, but that should be pretty obvious to mostly everyone.

Personally, I've been working out fairly intensely recently, and due to a weird metabolism, have been losing weight while consuming about 3000 calories per day. Two eggs, half a pound of veggies and a bagel with a big glass of milk/simple protein shake for breakfast, muffins/fruit and veggie snacks throughout the day, and something meaty with bread and veggies for dinner. Variety is key.